Cop's alleged victim 'feared for life'

Martin James Folan is on trial facing various assault charges. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A man who says he was bashed by a police officer while in prison has told a court how he feared for his life during the alleged attack.

Martin James Folan, a police sergeant in West Auckland, faces six charges of assault and one of injuring with intent to injure.

He is alleged to have bashed five prisoners, one of whom had to have a testicle removed. Folan pleaded not guilty in the Auckland District Court yesterday.

Minora Kea was arrested by police after he had been drinking and was attacked by some men and hit over the head with a blunt object in December, 2009, the court heard today.

He said after being led off to the cells with a sore head, he was let out and then throttled by Folan in the watch house area of the Henderson police station.

"He came up and grabbed my neck and pushed his thumb in, I was pushed against the wall. It hurt and I couldn't speak properly."

A DVD played to the jury showed Folan approach Kea and put his hands around Kea's neck.

"I didn't expect him to do that to me. I feared for my life," Kea told the court.

Kea has not yet been cross-examined by Mr Earwaker.

Earlier, the court heard how Samuel Verdonk was allegedly kicked in the groin by Folan after repeatedly banging his head against his cell wall.

Verdonk was intoxicated and "flipping out" when police arrived at his ex-partner's home in November 2009, the court heard today.

"I just wanted to let loose."

He told the court that he reached around a police officer's belt searching for a gun because he wanted to shoot himself or others.

Verdonk remembers very little of being arrested or his time in a police cell. He said he does remember a "nice pretty police woman" waking him up in the morning.

He said once he got home and took a shower, he noticed pain in his groin.

Under cross examination from Folan's lawyer, Richard Earwaker, he confirmed that he had not been spoken to by police until four months after the incident.

Yesterday, Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said the court will hear how Folan asked a constable to swing Verdonk's cell door open. Folan is alleged to have rushed into the cell and kicked Verdonk in the groin.

Earlier, the court heard how a 16-year-old boy arrived home in the back of a police car, yelling that he had been hit in the face by a Sergeant while handcuffed.

The teenager, Finn Campbell, told the court that he was approached by Folan after he had been drinking with friends on Halloween in 2009.

Mr Campbell said Folan accused him and his friends of smashing letterboxes.

Mr Campbell denied any involvement, but confirmed to Mr Earwaker that he got "lippy" with Folan before being put in handcuffs.

His friends were taken home by other police officers and Mr Campbell was put into Folan's police car.

"He was going to put my seat belt on and I said: 'Why do you have to be a dick about this?"'

Mr Campbell said Folan elbowed him in the face and said, "Don't call me a dick."

The teen's father, James Campbell, said his son had never been in trouble with the police before.

He said he and his wife arrived home from dinner to find their son handcuffed in the back of a police car.

Folan told them that Finn had been "lippy" and may tell the court that he had been elbowed in the face but that if there had been any connection, it was an accident.

Mr Campbell said his son was distraught.

"As soon as the car door was open, Finn was shouting: 'He elbowed me in the face'."

Mr Campbell said it took about two hours to calm his son down.

"It took me two days to convince him - it seems strange, I wish I hadn't - but to convince him not to lay a complaint."

Mr Campbell said there were no marks on his son's cheek.

Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said yesterday that Joseph McGee, another of Folan's alleged victims, lost a testicle after allegedly being assaulted by Folan on January 8 last year.

Folan faces a charge of injuring with intent to injure and an alternative charge of assaulting with intent to injure in relation to Joseph McGee.

Mr Zarifeh said Mr McGee was drinking at a west Auckland bar when he got into a fight. An ambulance and the police were called.

Mr Zarifeh said police officers had to restrain Mr McGee while ambulance staff checked him for injuries. He was arrested for disorderly behaviour and taken to the Henderson police station.

Three police officers were helping to process Mr McGee when Folan kneed him "with a good deal of force".

Mr McGee spent the night in a police cell, where he was seen holding his groin in pain. When he got home next morning, he took painkillers, but put off seeing a doctor for three days.

Mr Zarifeh said Mr McGee's swollen left testicle was eventually examined by a doctor and it was removed in hospital.

Police are allowed by law to use reasonable force, and Mr Zarifeh said this would be one of the issues the jury of five men and seven women would have to take into account. But he said Folan's use of force was "gratuitous".

"What really occurred is him losing his temper."

Mr Earwaker said there would be issues of credibility because none of the complaints were made at the time of the alleged assaults.

He said jury members would also have to ask themselves what happened and, in at least one case, when were the injuries sustained and by whom.